Responses noted during the public forum at the ERA/ECB Local Development Framework meeting 10^th April 2008 held at Emsworth Community Centre 7:30-9:30pm

Printer friendly version of this page (PDF)

Please note: the responses have been grouped into topics to make them easier to access. In some cases, post meeting notes have been added to clarify certain points.

Possible housing sites in Emsworth

UE13 West of Horndean Road has 147 dwellings allocated to it in the documents

UE10 Hampshire Farm has 280 dwellings allocated

UE11 West of Emsworth - Horse field south of A259 has 123 dwellings allocated

UE32 East of Horndean Road has 80 dwellings allocated

EM36 Hospital site has 12 dwellings allocated

UE3b South of Bartons Road - 203 dwellings and outside Emsworth Ward

UE4 Manor Farm and Copsey’s Nursery - 175 dwellings and outside Emsworth Ward

Hampshire Farm (UE10)

There should be no access from Hampshire Farm (UE10) into Long Copse Lane should a new housing estate be built on the land. Long Copse Lane is a very narrow semi-rural lane and will be used as a rat run for people living on the new housing estates in Emsworth who are likely to shop in Westbourne because it is closer. However, the shopping facilities and especially parking in Werstbourne are inadequate to cope with such an increase.

Hampshire Farm has drainage problems (despite the sustainability assessment document stating it doesn’t) particularly as it runs into a single culvert. This could be a significant problem for house owners obtaining insurance as generally this is getting harder to obtain after last summers floods in the UK.

Redlands Lane residents were very concerned about traffic management concerning access to and from the UE10 Hampshire Farm site, especially concerning the privacy of houses on the northern part of Redlands Lane where there is currently no vehicular access.

Access onto Hampshire Farm from Long Copse Lane is also not desirable because of the nature of the lane.

What sort of renewable energy unit is envisaged for this site?
Post Meeting Note
UE2 was removed from the Strategic Gap by the Inspector of the last Public Inquiry and is recorded as such in the current Local Plan.

OS2 (open space to the east of Hampshire Farm site)

What is the proposed use of the OS2? Formal/Informal recreation.

OS2 is designated to be a Local Gap rather than a Strategic Gap because Westbourne has less than 10,000 residents.

West of Emsworth, south of A259 (UE11)

UE11 (the horse field opposite the Brookfield Hotel) is within the Chichester Harbour “AONB” (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty). It was noted by an ex employee of Chichester Conservancy that the AONB and SSSI (Sites of Special Scientific Importance), Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) and Ramsar sites have been excluded from the Strategic Gaps.

Post meeting note: The reason given in the documents (Allocations Development Plan document, page 12, Section 4.6) is that they are protected by other designations in accordance with the Panel Report into the draft SE Plan.

But it seems they still need protecting from development.

See Gaps.

It was remarked at the meeting, that the horse field has been owned by a developer for a number of years.

South of Bartons Road (UE3b)

UE3b (south of Bartons Road) is within the Southleigh estate and when this estate was split up and part of it developed in 1992 (Locks Farm Development), a Section 106 agreement was drawn up. This agreement stated that the undeveloped land would be for open use in perpetuity (999 years). But it could be used as farmland for the next 25 years.

Post meeting note:

If this is correct, this land should not be used for development and should stay as farmland until 2017. Perhaps the officers at HBC should be reminded of this Section 106 agreement.

East of Horndean Road (UE32)

The 80 houses proposed here are in OS1, designated as an open space area for recreation. The thinking here is that the developer would pay for the recreational facilities as part of gaining permission to build houses, so-called planning gain.

Distribution of new housing across the borough/concentrating new housing in fewer places

With regard to the density of new housing, wouldn’t it be better to have the higher density housing grouped together with areas in the borough which already have high density housing.

The huge development planned for Waterlooville referred to as the “MDA”(Major Development Area) may be able to take an even larger proportion of the new builds. Because the site is so large it already has the infrastructure improvements planned and it was suggested this would be a more efficient way to approach this rather than each part of the borough “taking its share”.

The allocations plan means there will be piecemeal development across the borough and as such the current infrastructure will have to cope with more and will become further degraded. Concentrating development in fewer places makes infrastructure improvement in those areas easier to fund and carry out.

Post meeting note: Many of the people present at the meeting were in favour of centralised development rather than dispersed across the Borough. It might be worth questioning how the preference for dispersion of housing across the Borough came about.

For those interested, see the Consultation documents: www.havant.gov.uk/havant-9052

The graphs of the results do not seem to provide evidence for the conclusions!!

See also link to information about Waterlooville MDA by Brendan Gibb-Gray

Gaps

The gaps give a sense of place to Emsworth and must be preserved and protected.

Chichester Harbour AONB, Hollybank Woods, Brook Meadow, Nore Barn Woods have all been excluded from the Strategic Gaps, whereas in the current Local Plan they are all in Strategic Gaps.

Post meeting note: The gaps have been redefined according to the map on page 2 of the Map Booklet: www.havant.gov.uk/havant-9354 This means that OS2 (the area of open space east of Hampshire Farm) is no longer a Strategic Gap but has now been designated as a Local Gap. This is because Strategic Gaps are now defined as separating settlements of more than 10,000 people. Emsworth has a higher population than this but Westbourne doesn’t!

You can make comments on the Gaps in the comment form for the Allocations Development Plan. Question 1.

For more information about the new Gap definition, see www.havant.gov.uk/PDF/GapsReportFinalDraft.pdf

Infrastructure

Drainage

There is only one main north/south drainage culvert so the new north Emsworth developments including the interbridges site will put more pressure on this single drain and is likely to cause more problems along the Westbrook Stream.

Roads

Infrastructure particularly North/South link road is an issue already and the proposed Interbridges site (SK2) traffic light controlled junction will make traffic congestion even worse. It was pointed out how bad the situation is in Havant now with the new developments and road junctions. There was also concern about the ability of emergency vehicles to get to north Emsworth along this congested route. And also the well-being of the shops in Emsworth Town Centre.

Roads are controlled by Hampshire County Council and not Havant Borough Council and there needs to be more joined up thinking/planning to match housing allocations with road infrastructure.

Cycle routes

Cycle routes need to be improved in and around Emsworth. Emsworth Community Board has recently completed a Street Audit for Emsworth which includes footpaths and cyclepaths.

Other infrastructure

Schools - lack of places in local schools means increased pressure on schools in neighbouring boroughs and counties.

Additional sewerage disposal will be required.

Shops - Not adequate in Westbourne to take increased housing development in Emsworth.

Health facilities: doctors surgeries and hospitals - the PCT have not taken increased house building into account in estimates for hospitals and other health care.

Cross-border communication

There is not enough cross-border communication and joint planning being done with West Sussex. We are aware of continued building around Westbourne yet there is virtually no mention in any of the documents about this and the combined impacts. For instance Hampshire Farm plus Westbourne building plans indicates a number of around 500 houses in a relatively small area fed by few shops, little public transport facilities and small roads.

Farmland

There is a shortage of food and there is evidence to show that farmers are turning set-aside back into productive farmland as things like wheat prices rise. This applies to all the farmland proposed for housing. The land is good quality farmland and should continue to be used as such. Once farmland is lost it is gone forever. Leave the existing farmland in the strategic gaps alone.

Habitat, Wildlife

Loss of natural habitat was brought up as a good way to raise objections to development particularly if there are animals or plants on the endangered list.

Also note that wildlife corridors (such as for the movement of deer) should be mentioned. Having bats around the site is also another good objection point.

Post Meeting Note:

Bats are a Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) species and Hampshire CC and HBC are supposed to be supporting such actions plans.

Get a local wildlife expert to do a survey for you and/or write down a list of all the animals and plants (including trees) you have seen on the site. It is not only endangered species which are important but also biodiversity (variety of species found in a particular habitat, e.g. Oaks are especially good at supporting a large number of insects).

Hedgerows are also a very important habitat to mention, especially if they are well established and have several native species.

Trees and Forest of Bere regeneration

The street scene should be considered. Trees and verges, pleasant outlook, etc.

The open space area OS2 next to Hampshire Farm could be planted with trees as part of the Forest of Bere regeneration. The allocations documents do not have any regeneration of the Forest of Bere in Emsworth. There should be!

There is a copse of trees likely to be destroyed with development on UE13 behind Jingles Hotel, there was talk of a pond being there as well. Some of the trees have recently had TPOs (Tree Preservation Orders) put on them by HBC.

Post Meeting Note:

You can make comments on Tree planting on the comments form for the Allocations Development Plan. Questions 3 and 4.

Conflict between Planning Policies

There was reference to the planning proposal by Jingles Hotel a few months ago that was thrown out by the HBC planning team on grounds of spoiling the character and visual amenity and appearance of that part of Emsworth, yet now they are allocating that whole corner of the field for building. There is therefore a conflict with the current rules which run until 2011 and this new plan.

Post Meeting Note:

Even more serious, in the Core Strategy, there is a conflict between policy CS1 Protection and Enhancement of the Environment (including the strategic gaps) and policy CS8 Housing Provision to build more houses in the gaps. This conflict is brought out in the Sustainability Assessment.

You can mention this and other policy conflicts on the comment form for the Core Strategy.

Q 7 and 8 refer to the environment.

General comments

1. Send in individual comments and as many as possible; it doesn’t matter if they are similar. Do not send in petitions or group responses; these only count as one person.
2. The LDF is evidence based. This means you need to send in observations and comments as to why a particular site is unsuitable for housing and where for example you would like to see more trees planted, better cycle paths, schools, etc. etc. HBC need your local knowledge to help them assess the suitability of proposed sites for housing, employment, etc
3. This is going to be a long process and you will need to be persistent and keep on sending in your comments each time there is an opportunity to do so. Otherwise you will lose the chance to have any say on what goes on in the area where you live. If lots of people send in comments, HBC will have to take notice of them and this could alter the situation. If you sit back and do nothing, everybody loses including you.